Mater puero flenti lenius respondet.

Because mater is the subject of the sentence: it is the person doing the action of respondet.

• mater = nominative singular, mother
• respondet = she responds / answers

So mater is nominative because it is the one responding.

Latin has no articles like the or a/an.

So mater can mean:

• mother
• the mother
• sometimes even a mother

You understand which is meant from the context.

Because respondere commonly takes the dative for the person responded to.

So:

• puero = to the boy
• respondet puero = she responds to the boy

This is very natural Latin, even though in English we usually say respond to someone with a preposition.

flenti is the present participle of flere, meaning crying or weeping.

It is in the dative singular because it describes puero, so it must agree with it in:

• case: dative
• number: singular
• gender: masculine here, because it refers to puero

So:

• puero = to the boy
• flenti = crying
• puero flenti = to the crying boy

No. The form tells you it goes with puero.

• mater is nominative singular
• puero is dative singular
• flenti is also dative singular

Since flenti matches puero, it describes the boy, not the mother.

If it described mater, it would need a nominative form instead.

Latin often prefers a participle where English might use a whole clause.

So instead of:

• to the boy who is crying

Latin can simply say:

• puero flenti = to the crying boy

This is very common and compact in Latin.

lenius is a comparative adverb, meaning more gently, more mildly, or less harshly.

It comes from lenis (gentle, mild).

A useful comparison:

• leniter = gently
• lenius = more gently

So the sentence says that the mother responds more gently.

Not necessarily. A Latin comparative can compare with something that is:

• explicitly stated
• understood from context
• just implied

So lenius might mean:

• more gently than someone else
• more gently than before
• rather gently / somewhat gently in context

The exact comparison depends on the larger context.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show each word’s role.

This sentence places the words in a natural Latin order:

• Mater first: the topic or subject
• puero flenti together: the person being responded to, with his description
• lenius before the verb: highlighting the manner
• respondet at the end: very common in Latin

English relies heavily on word order; Latin relies much more on inflection.

Yes, often it could. For example, these would still be understandable Latin:

• Mater lenius puero flenti respondet
• Puero flenti mater lenius respondet
• Mater respondet puero flenti lenius

The basic meaning would stay the same because the endings still show:

• mater = subject
• puero flenti = dative phrase
• lenius = adverb
• respondet = verb

But different word orders can slightly change emphasis.

Because the ending of the verb already includes the subject information.

• respondet = he/she/it responds

The ending -t shows third person singular.

So Latin often leaves out subject pronouns unless they are needed for emphasis or contrast.

Either may work, depending on context.

• responds is the more direct match to respondet
• answers is often natural English

In Latin, respondere can mean replying, answering, or responding. The exact English choice depends on what sounds best in the full passage.

Because respondere here does not need one. The important complement is the dative of the person being answered:

• puero = to the boy

So the structure is not answer someone in the English direct-object sense, but more like:

• respond to someone

That is why a dative appears instead of an accusative direct object.